The Brewers are your 2026 World Series champions.
Milwaukee shook off a grueling 12-inning loss in Game 4 to bounce back and win Game 5, 4–1, claiming its first championship in franchise history. Jacob Misiorowski pitched 5 ⅔ scoreless innings before he was forced to leave the mound due to cramping, and William Contreras, Brice Turang and Cooper Pratt continued their hot streaks at the plate to power the offense. Contreras, who drove in four runs in the series and threw out four runners, earned MVP honors.
It was a long time coming, obviously. The Brewers, who began life as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee the following year, were one of just five MLB franchises that had not won a championship. (The ones still waiting are the Rays, Rockies, Padres and Mariners.) Their only other appearance in the Fall Classic was in 1982, when they blew a 3–2 series lead and lost in seven games.
But it was overdue in another way, too. The Brewers have consistently been one of the best teams in baseball for the past decade, making the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons. It was only a matter of time before they finally broke through and became the last team standing. Since 2018, the Brewers have won 780 games—the fourth most in the majors. Only the Dodgers, Yankees and Astros have won more games over that span. This wasn’t a fluke championship.
These Brewers didn’t play like your typical 21st-century juggernaut, but that doesn’t mean they were completely dominant. They won 103 games in the regular season and went 11–2 in the playoffs. They had a six-game losing streak and a four-game losing streak in April and then never lost more than three games in a row again. And they did it by putting the ball in play, running the bases well and playing good defense.
The team wasn’t built like other recent successful teams, either. Milwaukee has a couple of players who were acquired in high-profile trades (Christian Yelich and Contreras) and high-price free agents. The rest of the roster was built through the draft and the international free agent market (which isn’t usual) and by acquiring struggling players who the Brewers magically fixed.
Trevor Megill, the team’s standout closer who got the final six outs last night, was acquired in exchange for a player to be named later after the Twins designated him for assignment. He’d been a sub-replacement-level player in his first two big league seasons, then the Brewers turned him into an All-Star. Andrew Vaughn, the team’s top bat off the bench, was hitting .189 for the White Sox when the Brewers traded for him last June. First baseman Jake Bauers was a Quad-A journeyman before Milwaukee traded for him. He led the team with 26 homers this season.
You’re going to hear a lot between now and February about how baseball is a sport that needs fixing. The owners, seeking to line their pockets with an even greater share of the game’s profits, are pushing to institute a salary cap in the name of “competitive balance.” They’re almost certainly going to lock out the players when the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1 as a negotiating tactic.
But the Brewers’ win—and, really, the way they’ve operated for the past decade—is a timely reminder that the owners’ concerns about payroll disparities are nothing more than self-serving nonsense. We just saw a World Series matchup between teams ranked 19th and 28th in payroll. The Brewers have built a consistent winner not by outspending everyone, but by outsmarting them. Isn’t that what makes baseball great?
